Avoiding Plagiarism: Tips

If you paraphrase in
your notes, be sure that it is a true paraphrase, not just moving a few
words around.

Always include the page number
when you take notes – even if you paraphrase.

Cite every piece of information
that is not a) the result of your own research, or b) common knowledge.

Make it clear at the beginning of sentences that
what comes next is someone else's idea:

According
to Smith...

Jones
says...

In
his 1987 study, Robinson proved...

When
in doubt, provide a citation.

What is Plagiarism?

Deliberate plagiarism is when you present someone else’s work as your own. Whether you’re copy and pasting text from a website, stealing a friend’s paper, quoting without citation, or summarizing unique ideas without giving credit, it’s plagiarism.

Accidental plagiarism happens when writers fail to write complete, correct citations, or when they don’t understand what they must cite. The tips on this sheet should help you uncover citation rules that can help prevent accidental plagiarism.

When Do I Have to Cite?

Common knowledge
refers to facts that can be found in numerous places and are likely to be known
by a lot of people. You don’t need to cite sources for these facts.

Because the
following is a commonly known fact, it doesn’t need to be cited:

John
F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in 1960.

In the following, you do need to cite
your source (even though you did not quote directly) because the idea that
"Bush's relationship with Congress has hindered family leave
legislation" is an interpretation of facts:

According the American Family Leave
Coalition's new book, Family Issues and Congress, President Bush's
relationship with Congress has hindered family leave legislation (6).

There is no strict definition of common knowledge – you’ll have to use
your own judgment. Can you find the information in many sources? Are a lot of
people likely to know it? Then it’s common knowledge.

Quotations
are when you use someone's exact words.When you quote, place the passage you are using in quotation marks, and
document the source according to a standard documentation style (MLA, APA,
etc). The following is a correctly cited quotation:

According to Peter S. Pritchard in USA
Today, "Public schools need reform but they're irreplaceable in
teaching all the nation's young" (14).

Paraphrasing
means using someone's ideas, but putting them in your own words.This is probably the skill you will use most
when incorporating sources into your writing – and it’s the easiest way to
accidentally plagiarize.Although you
use your own words to paraphrase, you must still acknowledge the source of the
information. Think of it as citing the ideas rather than the text.

If Pritchard says
“Public schools need reform but they're irreplaceable in teaching all the
nation's young” you are plagiarising if you write:

Public schools need to be reformed, but we
can’t replace public schools’ roles of teaching youth in the United States.

Credit Pritchard
and use new words and a new sentence structure, and you can avoid plagiarizing.
This is correct paraphrasing:

Pritchard admits that public schools are the best
approach to educating children in America, despite his demand to
improve the system (14).

A paraphrase should
contain all of the author's information and none of your own commentary. Even
if you have avoided using the author's words, sentence structure, or style, an unattributed paraphrase is plagiarism because
it presents another person’s ideas as your own. Be sure to keep your own ideas separate from the ideas you
get from another person.